Qantas appoints new CISO

Qantas has appointed Darren Argyle as its new chief information security officer.

Argyle is joining the national airline in late February and has moved across from London, England where he was recently managing director and group CISO at IHS Markit, an information and analysis organisation.

Qantas has been looking for a security head since August last year. At the time, the airline said its new cyber security chief would identify and lead programs to “monitor the emergence of new threats and vulnerabilities, assess business impacts, and drive rapid responses to cyber security events.”

Argyle will be reporting to Qantas’ new CIO, Susan Doniz, a Qantas spokesperson told CIO Australia. Argyle will oversee four reporting teams in Sydney with a total headcount of 13.

Qantas CTO Chris Taylor is continuing to act in the CISO role until Argyle starts work, the Qantas spokesperson said.

Qantas indicated last August that a number of other senior staff would be appointed to drive its security function. The spokesperson said that there were no other major appointments in the security team at this point.

Prior to IHS Markit, Argyle held senior roles with Symantec and IBM and has 20 years’ experience in the IT security field.

Qantas-owned airline, Jetstar, has also appointed Yvette Lejins as its new head of cyber security.